Lunt’s future is up in the air

The hooker has scored six tries in 12 appearances since joining Leeds Rhinos on loan until the end of the season.

He is under long-term contract at parent club Huddersfield Giants, while Rhinos have two other hookers – Paul McShane (Widnes Vikings) and Liam Hood (Dewsbury Rams) – out on loan or dual registration.

Giants signed another hooker, Scott Moore, on a short-term contract at the same time Lunt joined Leeds and have undergone a change of coach, with Paul Anderson taking over from Nathan Brown.

“I haven’t got a clue,” Lunt said of what happens beyond the end of the campaign. “All I am doing is playing well for Leeds and hopefully that will take care of itself.”

Lunt has been a key player for Leeds in their recent improved form and he feels they are beginning to prove their critics wrong after a poor spell in May and early June.

“We had our bad patch, but we played all the top teams,” he reflected.

“People were writing us off, but we stuck together as a team and it’s been proven now that what we are doing is right.

“Sometimes it works in your favour when people write you off, because there’s no expectations on you.

“We knew in our heart of hearts that if we dug deep and we tweaked a few things on the pitch we would come good and obviously that’s happened.”

Lunt was not involved in Rhinos’ 2011 Super League triumph, when they won the Grand Final from fifth spot in the table, but he said he can see echoes of that this time around.

“It was fantastic what they did last year,” said the hooker. “Coming from fifth to win the title and getting to the Challenge Cup final.

“Being around the boys you get to know the character that’s in the side and I can easily see how they went on to win it.”

Lunt could return to the starting line-up for next Monday’s game at Wakefield Trinity Wildcats after half-back Danny McGuire was charged with the grade B offence of “making dangerous contact” with Bulls’ Brett Kearney last Friday.

He has until 11am today to submit an early guilty plea and could face a ban of one to two games.

If McGuire is suspended, Rob Burrow is likely to switch into the halves, with Lunt coming into the first 13 at hooker.

Meanwhile, Rhinos full-back Luke Briscoe, stand-off Liam Sutcliffe and loose-forward Jordan Baldwinson have been named in the England Academy side to face New South Wales Juniors at Narrabeen tomorrow in the opening match of their Australian tour.